Ironically, the online reputation management industry has a reputation issue: Several firms in the industry have been turned away by prosecutors, and other companies apparently struggle because of complaints from past clients who claim the services sold and executed by those agencies were a scam.

Yet some four years and 100 mandates (commissioned work) into Herman Tumurcguolu’s online reputation management (ORM) work, driven almost exclusively by word-of-mouth, his team has not had the same complaints and reality as other companies. Why is that?

In his recent article published in May on Marketing Prof, Tumurcuoglu explains, like Elon Musk did in his industry, the blueprint to successful ORM efforts. With their blueprint, companies can also avoid being turned away or having a poor reputation. Let’s face it, who wants to buy reputation services from individuals or a company that has a poor reputation? Although the ORM Expert has shared some of these keys to success before, he has never before publicly revealed key details about the blueprints. The content that Herman discusses in this article is not anywhere on the Internet: not in presentation, not on his website, only in this recent article.

In an agency, Tumurcuoglu believes that there are three stages in the customer lifecycle: pre-mandate, process during the mandate, and reporting. This lifecycle is different from that of most businesses. This is one of the main reasons why most ORM agencies are failing; they are following a structured Buyer’s Journey that does not apply to their industry. However, the only way to know that there is a different lifecycle and formula is to have to experience. Tumurcuoglu failed many times in his blueprints before he landed on a sustainable blueprint. Keep in mind, his blueprint is also always changing because search engine algorithms are constantly being sophisticated and refined.

Most of takeaways for marketing experts who don’t work at or understand the functions of ORM agencies lie with the first stage: business ethics. To read more about the keys to a successful ORM strategy, click the link provided above. There, you can also contact Tumurcuoglu for hands-on advice.